Suspected Fulani herdsmen attack a 50year old farmer in Edo

Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have allegedly attacked a 50-year-old farmer, Bashiru Aliu (50), in his farm at Ubuneke-Ivbiaro, in Owan East local government area of Edo state.

The incident occured on Tuesday when the attackers numbering about four, pounced on the farmer between 9 and 10 am, with a machete and inflicted deep cut on his head.

It would be recalled that suspected herdsmen numbering about six had on 14 May, 2018, raped a woman and beat her husband to pulp at a farm in the same community.

Speaking to journalists in Benin on phone, the victim who is currently receiving medical treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Auchi, said he was attacked in his plantain farm.

Aliu disclosed that the matter has been reported at the Auchi Area Command and the Divisional Police Headquarters, Afuze.

“When I was cutting my plantain in my farm, I did not know that some herdsmen have laid an ambush somewhere waiting for me. Suddenly they pounced on me and started using machete on me, saying that they are here to take my life.

“At that point, knowing that it is between life and death, I engaged them in a serious fight and in the process, they cut my head with machete . When, they assumed that I was dead, they ran away. That was how God saved me from their hands,” he said.

Reacting to the incident, the eldest man in Ivbiaro community, Chief Musa Kadiri, called on security agencies to come to their aid, noting that agricultural activities have in the past five years been at its lowest ebb die to incessant attacks by armed men.

He added that the people of the community who are mainly farmers can no longer go to their farms over fears of attacks by armed men.

When contacted on phone, the State Police Command Spokesman, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident.